Just luv these pics!

Chloe Turns 2

Gotta luv cake!

I know I'm a pretty lame mom, didn't even bake a pretty princess cake, instead Peter and the kids took a drive to HEB and picked out a cake! Chloe loved it, so!

Tooting Rootin' Buzz!

Interesting Article!

For sure check this one out!


http://www.ldsmag.com/ideas/081110hate2.html

What an awful day!

Yesterday was such an awful day!
My day started as usual, woke up, got dressed for the gym, got Ethan and Chloe dressed and ready to take to school. At about 8:50 hopped in the car and drove 5 minutes to Ethan's school. Turned around and came home. In the garage I unbuckled Layne and Chloe and led them into the laundry room, ran back to the car and grabbed my bag. Stepped back inside the house to find the girls wet? Of course in my stern voice I asked the girls if they had been playing in the potty, something they are famous for and with the bathroom being next door to the laundry room, it seemed like the only explanation.

To my horror, I was wrong, I stepped into my kitchen to find my entire kitchen in a puddle of water. I had turned the dishwasher on before I left, so I immediately turned it off, thinking that it was leaking or something. I then ran to the linen closet to get some towels to get the water away from my wood cabinets, only to find more puddles! Some of the living room carpet was squidgy and my entrance was soaked as well as part of my dining room carpet.

Then it dawned on me.....my water heater. The 65 gallon monstrosity had given out! In a mad panic I called Peter, who of course was in a hotel in Miami Florida!!! He had taken the past week and a half off and had left to go out of town the day before, go figure! I found the faucet on top of the water heater and turned it off, but of course there was still 65 gallons of warm water!

So my house is now in pieces, literally. The restoration company has removed baseboards, dry wall and the damaged carpet and padding! Peter luckily gets back this morning, so I will fee much better! I wanted new flooring, but this is not the way to go about it!

The only thing that I am delighted about is I decided to paint my front door and change the hardware the day before. So I rolled up my beautiful Persian rug so that I wouldn't get paint on it. I'm still not finished with the door, so the rug was no where near all the water! Pheeeew!

I have had a raging headache with the awful loud fans blowing, and the 2 ginormous de-humidifiers. My indoor plant is looking kinda lame and my skin feels so dry. It's like I'm back in Utah!

Hopefully my house will be pieced back together and like the restoration company explained, look like nothing every happened!

If this doesn't scare you then.....

We finally made it to the end of the week - Saturday!

What a whirlwind of a week! Some weeks we have plenty of kick back time and others are just go go go!! This was definitely a go go go!

Ethan played a soccer game in the morning and I got to attend our Enrichment Super Saturday. I had a good time mingling with the women in our ward and I managed to make some neat things for our home.

This is just an example of what I made. As soon as I take some pictures I will post them.

Friday - Play group party and Halloween Celebration!

Friday Ethan went to school in his costume and straight from school we went to our playgroup Halloween party. There were yummy treats and some fun games that the kids got to play. Chloe manage to spend a good amount of the party in just a diaper. Oh well, maybe next year she will be more into the whole costume thing. She is for sure into the candy part of Halloween!

After all the fun and games at playgroup we headed home for a good nap and then good suited up again for some dinner at the Hudson's and some more trick or treating. Sadly I totally forgot to take any pictures, but luckily Angela sent me some from the evening!


Notice Chloe is holding a sticky bun...funny story...they knocked on a house, two guys opened the door, one of them seemed like he had a bit to much to drink....anyways, they didn't have any candy, so they broke open their boxes of Rice Krispie treats and sticky buns!! The kids were so excited!! I don't think the one roommate was too happy about it though!



Raggity Anne and Buzz Light Year!

Thursday - Chuck E Cheese

Thursday evenings Ethan usually has soccer practice, but this Thursday instead of practicing his coach took his entire team to Chuck E Cheese. They had promised the team they would take them if they managed to score a goal and they finally did. Ethan and Joshy Ikeda were apparently a great duo. Joshy would run the ball down, kick it to Ethan to score.

Of course this was the only game I couldn't attend as we were having our final primary program practice. Oh well, he was really excited and I was glad that he finally got to score. He really loves playing soccer and I know I am probably a little biased but I think he's really good at it!

Wednesday - Fossil Rim

Wednesday we were lucky enough to take a break from Halloween costumes. We headed out to Fossil Rim which is a really neat place where you drive your car amongst the animals. Pretty much like a safari, but any dangerous animals like Rhino's and Cheetahs are caged. They need to cage the ostriches, those birds are fast and mean!

Anyways the kids loved riding up front with us and they got to feed most of the animals but the best was feeding the giraffes. They stuck their long necks right into the car and ate right from our hands. The kids loved it, so did I!A car a head of us.
Ethan feeding the giraffe.
Layne loved it too!
They have the softest noses!
I was a little shocked when she stuck her head all the way in! Chloe loved it

Tuesday - Ward Fall Festival

Tuesday evening was our ward's Fall Festival. We all had a great time and the kids were pleased with their stashes of candy!
Ethan got a bit hot in his costume so he took the gloves and head gear off! What an easy costume to keep clean!!
I'm surprised we even have a picture of Chloe in her costume as she kept on taking it off!

Monday - Gymnastics Costume Parade!

Ethan goes to Gymnastics at Flips and they got to do a parade and some fun games like the Hokey Pokey in their costumes.

Halloween!

This week was a never ending Halloween party!!! We all had a great time and I know Ethan loved being Buzz Lightyear for the entire week! Chloe, well she just wasn't so keen on the whole costume thing!

Our week started on Sunday evening. Jessi, Kimmi and Sammy came over and helped us carve some pumpkins.Jessi and Ethan worked on Ethan's little pumpkin.
I opted for the electric pumpkin carver!!! Ethan was of course giving me instructions! Notice I'm nice and comfy in my jamies!!
Chloe wanted to be a pumpkin herself!
Pull Kimmi Pull!!
Such concentration..
Kimmi assisting miss Chloe-belle.
Sammy getting out all those guts.
Look out....Daddy's got a knife!

The older girls left with Peter for a Bishops Youth Discussion at the Bishops home so Sammy hung out with us and helped Ethan and Chloe get ready for bed!

Best Buddies!

Ethan and Chloe have so much fun together, although they do have their moments!! Ethan is so patient with his sister and Chloe is so funny trying to imitate all the things her brother does! She really loves her big brother....Perfect example, she wanted to wear all her brothers biking stuff!

She may not look like she is having a blast, but she loves it when Ethan races her around the house!
I love this picture of them!

Have you ever met a former black person??

YES on Prop 8

I know it's been a while....

Yes I have been a slacker. Either I just don't have the time, motivation or nothing exciting to write about. So I guess I shall mention some recent highlights.

Last week Friday was Ethan's school PTA fundraiser. I guess they do a carnival every year at South Bosque Elementary. Well Ethan had a blast and so did Chloe. His eyes were as big as saucers when we first arrived. He couldn't believe that in a few hours his schools parking lot had been transformed into a carnival with 4 or five jumping or sliding blowup play "thingies" and all the fun little booths. Ethan got a kick out of throwing a dripping wet sponge at someones face and Chloe jumped all night. They for sure had a grand time!


Today Ethans class went on their first field trip. Because we live so close to the school Ethan cannot ride the bus, so this was his first time on a big yellow school bus. He had really been looking forward to the bus ride and said it was really really fun!! They went to the HOT Fair and Rodeo mainly to see the livestock/animals. I asked him what was his favorite part of the trip and he said that his favorite part was when him and his classmates were looking at the "mean" bull with huge horns and then one of his classmates said that the bull was getting angry and smoke started to come out of the bulls nose, so they all ran!!! I laughed pretty hard, even had a hard time keeping control of the steering wheel!! What great imaginations 4 year old have. Don't worry I explained to him that that only happens in cartoons.

Ethans first soccer game!

Exactly how much does Ethan love soccer???

Doesn't matter if you're a lefty or a righty, this is just too funny!

http://www.peteyandpetunia.com/VoteHere/VoteHere.htm

Belated Happy B-Day!!

This week was my baby sister, Sarah-Jane's birthday so I wanted to wish her very happy but belated Birthday wishes!!! Last year we got to celebrate with her in South Africa for her very memorable 21st party at the Hilton in Durbs! Hope you had a great time this year and got to celebrate London style!!!

Ethans first week of Pre-K!

Ethan's first week at South Bosque has been a huge hit! He absolutely loves it and was mad that today was Saturday and there is no school!!!

We were out having dinner last night and of course asked Ethan about his day at school. He gave us the low down on everything he did and also mentioned that they start the day off by saying the pledge of allegiance. I was most intrigued about how much he knew. He mentioned that they did that at his last school. So I asked him how it goes and....Peter and I were blown away that he could recite it word for word from the beginning, right to the end. Lets just say we are very proud parents and I guess I better learn it asap huh!

Pre-K Prep...

It's absolutely amazing to me how quickly time flies by.  Just yesterday we were preparing for the summer, planning fun summer activities like gymnastics and vacations to California to visit and celebrate with family and friends. 

Wtih summer drawing to a close Ethan will be starting Pre-K next week and like many young children(can't say the same for teenagers!!) he is extremely excited.  So excited that I had to come up with a way for him to keep track of how many more days or as he says "sleeps" until school starts on his own. 

So yesterday we got out some poster board and made a pre-k countdown caterpillar.  When I was a kid if there was anything major that I was excited for I would make a caterpillar and attach it to the bed above me so every morning when I woke up, the first thing I would do is take away a segment.

So Ethan and I created his own countdown caterpillar and this morning he was so excited to wake up and colour in another segment.  I was really impressed with a little trick he showed me. I don't know where he learnt it, but to help him stay in the lines he puts his free hand on the line and lets the crayon bump into it.  I was quiet impressed!

Not only does the caterpillar help visually remind him, but he has been able to apply some math skills by counting how many days left and after two more are colored in he will only have three days left.  Something so simple, has proven to be so much fun! 

I would love to have posted a picture, but my camera is broken.

What a resemblance!

I like many am a Facebooker and a Skype user and love them both as I am able to communicate with my friends and relatives in South Africa, Australia, and all over Europe. Some I haven't seen or spoken to in years, so it has been fantastic catching up.



My aunt who resides down under recently posted some pretty funny pictures from my childhood and there was one of my sister, Sarah-Jane who is 7 years younger than I.



I just can't get over how much my baby girl resembles my baby sister. It's actually just incredible how similar they look. So I thought I would post the picture of my sis, and eventually take a recent picture of Chloe just so to compare. My camera broke, so hopefully this week I will get my hands on a new one and get snapping!

So I finally got round to adding a recent pic of Chloe!